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Do you know what’s scary? You know that paralysis of fear that you feel right before the drop of a rollercoaster? Or the gut wrenching anxiety when you walk into a hospital? That moment of desperation when you swerve quickly to avoid a fatal collision? We each have our own definitions of fear. For me, losing your job is scary, but what’s worse is staying in your job.

Two weeks ago, I quit my job. What I do is not impressive, and it’s not particularly well paid. In fact, it is minimum wage and it has made me miserable every day for the last 8 months. The sensible thing to do would be to line another job up before quitting, but there’s a moment of content peacefulness that comes when you reach your limit. I knew that enough was enough, and had I not done it then I am not sure I ever would have. Continue reading →

Do you lovely readers enjoy my blog? If you do, take a quick detour to the Blog Awards UK website and vote for me. Just follow the link below, sign up, and then place your vote. If all else fails, type “Goldilocks Notebook” into the search bar on the Blog Awards homepage, and you’ll find me. I’ve just hit over 10,000 page views, and it’s all because some of you find me a little bit interesting. Thanks for the memories, xoxo.

As adoring as I am of the annual Coca Cola truck and Santa’s twinkly eyes and friendly face on my television, the Marks and Spencer Christmas campaign is one of my favourite things of the entire year. In fact, the actual shop is one of my favourite things of the year once they’ve stocked up on all their Christmas goods – Yes, I do need a mini teapot with a tea cosy and yes Mother, you will buy it for me or there will be tiny tears. Last year’s Greatest Hits campaign left me bored and wanting more, after years of becoming accustomed to a more glittery and heartwarming offering. The problem was, I didn’t care about the products as the stars. I wanted snow, glimmer, and exuberance-I wanted a show, dammit! It seems as though M&S have reverted back to their trusty old Christmas staple, Magic and Sparkle, a concept from the 2001 campaigns.

“The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where one ends, and where the other begins?” – Edgar Allan Poe

Come in my pretties, can I take your coat? Please, make yourselves at home. There now, there is no need to be afraid of All Hallows’ Eve. Take off your mask, there is no need for that here, I know exactly who you are. Are you sitting comfortably?

It began almost 2,000 years ago, when the Celts across Europe celebrated their New Year’s Eve. Known as Samhain Eve, it was celebrated at the end of October before the colder months chilled the bones of our ancestors. They didn’t own overpriced Barbour jackets or hot water bottles to keep them warm, you see. Samhain, means November in Irish and celebrated the end of a bountiful harvest season and the disappearance of the warm summer months. As the line waned between autumn and winter, it was legend that so did the veil between the living and the dead. On this particular night, spirits were thought to walk with the living, many on their way to the afterlife. Continue reading →

Street artist Bansky submitted a controversial Op-Ed to The New York Times. It was rejected, due to the newspaper’s inability to agree on the piece or the images used. The piece was then posted as a NYT mockup on Banksy’s own website, among many things he stated that the new One World Trade Centre is evidence that “the terrorists won” and that New York has lost it’s nerve. New York Times spokesperson Eileen Murphy also told the New York Post that “What he has posted on his site is not exactly the same as what he submitted.”

“It would be easy to view One World Trade Centre as a betrayal of everyone who lost their lives on September 11th, because it so clearly proclaims the terrorists won.”